The USA's Carmelita Jeter took the silver medal, with Jamica's Veronica Campbell-Brown taking the bronze.

With two Jamaicans and three Americans in the finals, both nations were poised to take home some hardware, with a mixture of running syles from fast starters to strong finishers.

Coming into the race, Jamaica's 25-year-old Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was the reigning Olympic champion and the fastest woman in the world among currently competing athletes, clocking a blazing 10.70 seconds at the Olympic trials in Jamaica earlier this year.